


Silver Threads to Gray Chocobos

by Sphinx_of_Black_Quartz



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Amnesia, Chocobos, Cloud Strife Needs a Hug, Gen, Gift Fic, Zack Fair & Cloud Strife Friendship, Zack Fair Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 14:26:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28779744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sphinx_of_Black_Quartz/pseuds/Sphinx_of_Black_Quartz
Summary: Playing in AimeeLouWrites Lazarus universe:Sephiroth attempts to mess with Cloud's mind and turn him to the Calamity's side. He did not account for Cloud's stubbornness, even while comatose.This leads to a lot of extremely unexpected events.
Relationships: AVALANCHE & Zack Fair, Zack Fair & Cloud Strife
Comments: 4
Kudos: 83





	Silver Threads to Gray Chocobos

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AimeeLouWrites](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AimeeLouWrites/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! 🎉🎊🎉🎉🎉🎊🎊 🎂
> 
> I hope you like this, I thought that every sad AU deserves a happy spin off. I wrote all of this in one day with no beta to post in time so hopefully it's not steamed garbage.
> 
> Please enjoy!!

The wind twisted through his hair as he looked down at Cloud, cradled in his arms.  
Zackary really was a good little puppy, wasn't he? He had taken such good care of Sephiroth's most prized possession.

"It's time to wake up, Cloud," he smiled, and dug himself into his puppet's mind. There was quite a lot of interference in there, tangled thoughts and memories threaded together til it was impossible to see where one ended and the other began. He began tugging the threads apart, straightening the snarls and occasionally snipping a thread that wouldn't be necessary. He got glimpses of memory when he came into contact with each thread, and that was how he knew his mistake.

His mental 'hand' brushed up against a thread, faded and frayed, but one that appeared to be guarded zealously by emotion. A woman's voice, rustling hair and warmth. 

And then, in the world of reality Cloud's eyes shot open. And he punched Sephiroth directly in the face. 

\-------------

No one was really able to decide what Jenova was, exactly. It was a parasite, but that was about all anyone could really say about it. A reality bending, multiple millennia year old parasite that ate planets, gobbled memories, and stole identities. 

So, when his nose was shattered, Sephiroth instinctively dropped his quarry in order to clutch at his now thoroughly shattered nose. After a bit of healing magic, he let go, prepared to scold his quarry, but.

Cloud was gone.

\----------------

Wasn't all this just a huge disaster? Zack wasn't sure how reviving a very familiar bartender/eco-terrorist that had fallen very similarly through the church roof had led to trying in vain to prevent thousands of deaths that would result from a plate falling to this. 

Somewhere between all that was a very high stakes stealth rescue mission involving a lab (don't think about it don't think about it don't think about it), sewer exploration, a very dangerous house, and a dress.

But now, with Sephiroth at the end of the highway, eerie eyes roving the ragtag group that Zack somehow found himself a part of, Zack tensed, but before he could raise his sword or even shout, the madman was gone.

He looked behind him, and judging by the looks on his companions' faces, they'd seen him too. That meant... That meant the Sephiroth he'd seen on the road to Midgar hadn't been a dream. 

He really had taken Cloud. Zack's hand tightened on the Buster Sword's hilt. He knew what he had to do.

\----------

The first thing they did was hole up in Kalm, to lose anyone who was trying to follow after, and Tifa took that time to explain why she personally had a vendetta against Sephiroth, with Zack taking over for the parts she wasn't there for.

And that was how the rest of the party also agreed to keep an eye out for Zack's missing chocobo-head friend.

After that, they'd traveled for a while, eventually making it to Corel, or at least what was left of it. Apparently it had burned down and the villagers had rebuilt their life further north, while some kinda theme park-casino thing called the Gold Saucer had been built over the ruins. Weird name for something that looked more like a really weird tree. 

And the villagers had been very antagonistic towards Barret, for reasons he refused to talk about, and Zack refused to press.

He'd agreed with Yuffie that they should check it out (why did they let her come, she tried to mug them), partially to see if any of the many people touring had seen Sephiroth, or Cloud, both of which they hadn't caught a single sighting of. The other reason is that the whole group was flagging and needed a break. 

As they piled onto the tram, Zack hoped that they'd find something.

\----------

Barret took off on his own the moment the party entered a hard on the eyes room with several tubes labeled with things like 'wonder', 'speed' and 'chocobo'. 

"Buddy up," Zack told the group, "I'll go look for Barret." 

\--

He caught up to Barret in the Chocobo Square, tucked to the side in the bleachers for guests that weren't willing to bet, but still had paid entry. 

Zack sidled his way past chattering guests, who were eagerly awaiting the jockeys and their birds, and took a seat next to him.

Before Barret could tell him to go away, Zack spoke up, "I like to think of us as friends, what with the intercontinental manhunt we're on, and I've always been taught to help friends out, no matter what." 

"Ya don't get it-" Barret tried but Zack wasn't done.

"I don't have to. I wasn't sure at first, what with all the terrorism, but you're a good man, and unless you decide to become a bad one, I'll help you."

The crowd roared as the first jockey walked their bird to the starting line and an announcer called names and stats. Zack was only halfway paying attention to the attraction, too focused on trying to get through to Barret that Zack Fair would never abandon his friends, _except you already did,_ a snide voice said in his head, that he promptly ignored. 

"I- thanks for sayin' that, Zack, but I really don't deserve it-" he suddenly looked directly down at the track, something catching his eye, "Wait, Zack, is that your friend?" 

"What?" Zack turned to look, as the announcer called out the last two names ("Goldie aaaaaaaaannnd Lucky!!") But his mind wasn't listening, because.

Because Cloud was _there_ , riding helmet under his arm, putting his distinct hair on display, goggles over his eyes, waving to the crowd, next to a gray chocobo that immediately shoved its beak into his hair as soon as the helmet came off. He pushed the bird's face away with what looked like a little laugh, but was too far away to tell. 

He was there, and he was awake. Sephiroth didn't have him. He was awake and safe and-- and racing chocobos in a gaudy casino instead of looking for Zack, after everything- 

Zack was too caught up in a mess of guilt, joy and anger to notice Barret's outstretched hand to him, and by the time he did, it was too late.

Zack had already jumped from the bleachers.

\------

"Well, that could have gone better," he said to nobody in particular, as he sat alone on the floor of a broken down house in the Corel Desert Prison. 

It hadn't gone horribly, because him staying with Barret in the Chocobo Square had given Barret both an alibi and a witness that he had not been the one to murder a bunch of people a few squares over. Wild that apparently having guns for arms was a more common practice than anyone had thought.

The bad part was that both the entire crowd and Cloud's chocobo had thought that he had jumped in order to attack Cloud. Screams of excitement had turned into terror, and an angry chocobo hen had given a screeching 'kweeeehhh' and attempted to get between him and his best friend, _his little brother_. 

The worst part was the pained fear-confusion on Cloud's face, and total lack of recognition. Zack dodged around the chocobo, "Hey, hey it's me, it's Zack-" but there was a gray chocobo in his face again, and Cloud was backing away, tears in his eyes. 

It was all a blur after that, approximately seven ushers had dragged him away from Cloud, who was holding his head in his hands while his chocobo fretted. Then they dumped Zack down a hole. 

Corel Desert Prison was a cesspit if he'd ever seen one, and it didn't help that it had been built on the ruins of a terrible tragedy. So not only was it filled with scoundrels of every kind, it was also three thousand percent haunted. He sighed and laid down on his back. This was all a mess, just because he couldn't even sit still. He was fairly sure that the audience could meet the jockeys after the races. And now he'd gone and gotten himself arrested. He had tried to head out into the desert to escape, because there were no fences or guards, but he was told in no uncertain terms by one of the nicer criminals that the desert went on for miles and he'd definitely die. 

He'd... Figure something out. He had to.

\--------------- 

It was morning now, and Zack was taking a short break from doing his third reconnaissance look, sitting on a rusty old car in the shadow of the saucer overhead. He'd gotten his water ration, and was eyeing some of the freaks of nature monsters around, debating whether or not to kill and eat one. 

The air was so dryyyyyy! He'd never missed Gongaga so much before, or even Midgar, which was horrible and full of smog, but still had a loose definition of humidity. Jungle boys like him were not made for deserts like this. He had to find a way out-

"Hey!" The shout made him turn around, and his jaw dropped. 

"Hey, um... This is awkward, but you know me, don't you?" Cloud said.

Zack closed his mouth, then his eyes over tears that he would not let himself squeeze out. He nodded.

Cloud gave a quick nod back, then scrambled up the car to sit next to him.

"I- they found me in the middle of the desert. Half-dead, malnourished, the works. Some of the inmates who were down here for petty theft, or cheating on the Gold Saucer games carried me out and took care of me until I woke up." 

Thrown down here for petty theft? Zack wasn't sure how anyone could think that was justified, but. "I'm glad," he croaked out "I'm glad they were there, and that they helped you."

Cloud sighed, "When I woke up, I couldn't even remember my own name, much less anything else about my life." Zack stared at him in horror, and he continued, "People started calling me 'Goldie' for the hair, but... It wasn't right. I wanted my own name back, but no one down here could tell it to me, so I knew I had to get out." 

"M-makes sense..." Zack murmured back, still reeling, ready to let Cloud talk as much as he wanted in order to keep him there.

"So I asked around, and apparently Dio, the guy that runs the saucer is always looking for new jockeys. The virtual race track isn't exactly the safest, so he's willing to hire just about anybody, and if a prisoner can win a race, they get to work off their sentence in the saucer as a jockey." 

"And you won,"

"And I won," Cloud confirmed. "The chocobo they let me ride was a runt. They'd gotten her from a failed attempt at breeding Teioh, the fastest one they got. They wanted a legendary gold chocobo, but instead they got her. She was gonna be culled, when they discovered her temperament of 'don't even get near me'. But I guess Dio didn't want to waste the effort, so he said if we won, I'd go free since there was no record that I was supposed to be there in the first place and she'd be my bird. I don't think anyone was expecting us to win, much less get along, but we did. It was one of those joke bets you know?"

"If you were free, why'd you stay?" Zack asked, a bit confused.

"I... I wanted to repay the prisoners that saved my life. So, I've slowly been volunteering to race for their freedom. I figured once they were all free, I could go look for my past. I had just freed the last one, and was going to do one more race to get enough money to survive. Then you showed up."

Zack looked away. "Cloud." He said, "Cloud Strife. That's your name." Cloud made a little grunt, and when Zack looked back at him, his eyes had glazed over. "Cloud? Cloud!" His friend shook his head, as though dislodging some memory. 

"Cloud..." He tested the name out then looked at Zack, "Cloud Strife! That's my name! Thank you... Zack, right?" Zack nodded, choked up. "I'm sorry I don't remember you. I'm sure you have a lot you want to remind me of. I never usually talk this much to anyone so.. we must've been close." 

"Yeah... We were..." Zack barely got out. 

Cloud nodded. He slid down the car hood and stood up. 

"Wait! Where are you going?! We just barely met again!" Zack followed. 

"What do you think? Me and Lucky have one more prisoner to free. I'm racing for you tonight. Then, once you're free, we can catch up."

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah Cloud definitely wins and he and Lucky go with avalanche and are the replacement for cait sith who is desperately trying to catch up to infiltrate. Barret and the rest all have a heart to heart while trying to figure out how to get Zack out of prison but eyyyy they don't have to!
> 
> Again, Happy Birthday AimeeLouWrites, who is probably my favorite FF7 author, and the first person I worked up the courage to reach out to online. :)


End file.
